Kenyan Officials Visit the Folklife Festival

Cabinet Secretaries Phyllis Kandie (right), Ministry of East Africa Affairs, Commerce and Tourism and Hassan Wario, Ministry of Culture , Sports and the Arts at the Kenya stand.

“This is a great opportunity to showcase the Kenyan culture in Washington, D.C.,” said Phyllis Kandie, Kenya’s Secretary from the Ministry of East African Affairs, Commerce and Tourism. “The U.S. and Kenya have enjoyed a strong diplomatic relations, and festival like will help our people to tie a stronger knot by understanding the Kenyan culture.”

Representatives from the Kenyan government also attended the festival on July 2 to look around the different sections and interact with tourists.

“It is great to see how successful this event turned out to be,” said Hassan Wario, Ministry of Culture, Sports and the Arts. Tourists visiting the site are enjoying some authentic Kenyan cuisine, and we have had food run out at our station. Ever since the festival began, we have had so many visitors enjoy Kenyan music from our Ngoma stage.

Kandie also expressed her positivity in attracting more American tourists to visit their homeland.

“This year, we have had 125,000 American tourists in Kenya,” Kandie said. “Some of them come for vacation, but an increasing number of development tourists are coming as well. We are hopeful that a festival like this will attract more tourists to Kenya.”

The Smithsonian Festival will continue on July 4 through July 6 at the National Mall.